A health hazard evaluation was requested from NIOSH by a manufacturing facility to evaluate employee exposures to metal dusts reportedly originating from an adjacent zinc recycling company. The recycling process involved reclaiming electric arc furnace fume, the primary hazard of which is lead (7439921) contamination. NIOSH conducted industrial hygiene surveys of the manufacturing facility on February 26, and June 4, 1991. Air, wipe, and bulk sampling was performed and employee interviews were conducted. Additional air lead monitoring and employee blood lead samples were collected on August 15, 1991. Personal breathing samples for lead in the manufacturing facility ranged from less than 3 micrograms per cubic meter (microg/m3) to 7microg/m3. Wipe samples indicated significant quantities of lead in all locations tested. Bulk metal samples collected from a furnace filter in the facility contained 4.5% lead by weight on the first visit and 1.7% lead on the second visit. Filter dust samples contained 18% zinc on both visits. Notable lead concentrations were found in the soil around the facility. Lead concentrations in employee blood samples were well below the OSHA standard and blood zinc-protoporphyrin concentrations were all within normal range. Half the first shift employees attributed their illnesses to the work environment. The author concludes that the entire manufacturing facility is contaminated with lead, but that excessive exposure was not indicated by air sampling and blood analysis. Engineering controls in the workplace were recommended.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.